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Microbial decomposition of crustacean shell for production of bioactive metabolites and study of its fertilizing potential

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Abstract

Crustacean shell waste disposal is considered as biggest problem in seafood processing centers. Incineration and landfilling are the commonest ways of disposal of the waste which causes environmental pollution. Microbial bio-conversion is one of the promising approaches to minimize the wastes by utilizing the same for deriving different value added metabolites. In this perspective, chitinase- and protease-producing bacterial strains were isolated from shrimp culture pond, and the potent isolate was subsequently identified as Alcaligenes faecalis SK10. Fermentative optimization of the production of chitinase (85.42 U/ml), protease (58.57 U/ml), and their catalytic products, viz., N-acetylamino sugar (84 μg/ml) and free amino acids (112 μg/ml), were carried out by utilizing shrimp and crab shell powder as principal substrate. The fermented hydrolysate (FH) was subsequently applied to evaluate its potential to be a candidate fertilizer for the growth of leguminous plant Pisum sativum and Cicer arietinum, and the results were compared with chitin, chitosan, and commercial biofertilizer amended group. The results revealed that FH have paramount potential to improve plants morpho-physiological parameters like stem and root length, chlorophyll, cellular RNA, protein content, and soil physico-chemical parameters like total nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium significantly (p < 0.05). Moreover, the application of FH also selectively encouraged the growth of free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria, Rhizobium, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria in the soil by 4.82- and 5.27-, 5.57- and 4.71, and 7.64- and 6.92-fold, respectively, in the rhizosphere of P. sativum and C. arietinum, which collectively is a good sign for an ideal biofertilizer. Co-supplementation of FH with commercial PGPR-biofertilizer significantly influenced the morpho-physiological attributes of plant and physico-chemical and microbial attributes of soil. The study validated proficient and sustainable utilization of fermented hydrolysate of waste crustacean shell as biofertilizer.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. The raw data retrieved during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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The authors are grateful to the Department of Science & Technology and Biotechnology, Govt. of West Bengal, India for financial assistance (Memo No: 532/(Sanc.)\ST/P/S&T/2G-48/2018 dated: 27/03/2019).

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  1. Department of Microbiology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, 721 102, India

    Kalyanbrata Pal, Subham Rakshit, Keshab Chandra Mondal & Suman Kumar Halder

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  1. Kalyanbrata Pal
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  2. Subham Rakshit
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  4. Suman Kumar Halder
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KP: sampling, investigation, formal analysis, original draft preparation; SR: methodology, visualization; KCM: supervision, review, and editing; SKH: resources, supervision, funding acquisition, conceptualization, review, and editing.

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Correspondence to Suman Kumar Halder.

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Pal, K., Rakshit, S., Mondal, K.C. et al. Microbial decomposition of crustacean shell for production of bioactive metabolites and study of its fertilizing potential. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 58915–58928 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13109-z

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